Started Early, Took My Dog cover art

Started Early, Took My Dog

Jackson Brodie 4

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Started Early, Took My Dog

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The fourth Jackson Brodie novel: literary crime from the prizewinning number-one bestselling author of Big Sky and Transcription.

A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn.

Witnesses to Tracy's outrageous exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie, who has returned to his home county in search of someone else's roots. All three characters learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished.

'Crime has given Atkinson the freedom to write an ambitious, panoramic work, full of excitement, colour and compassion' Sunday Times

© Kate Atkinson 2010 (P) Penguin Audio 2011

©2010 Kate Atkinson (P)2011 Random House Audiobooks Mystery Suspense Dogs Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant  
Jackson Brody is always good value for money and Kate Atkinson writes a complex story every time.
Couldn't someone please pay attention to important details such as pronunciation of names. Not the performer's fault necessarily but it would be so easy (I did this within one minute) to Google Niamh's name to confirm that it's pronounced Neeive and not Nam. Irish listeners must be as irritated as I am - and I'm not even Irish!
The same goes for many mistakes made on Audible in French and German. It sets the teeth on edge and would be easily preventable.

Attention to detail

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Love this series but enjoyment somewhat spoilt by narration. Cringed every time he said Nee-am instead of “Neeve “, and overall narrated in a somewhat dull fashion. Missing Jason Isaacs.
Someone should go through pronunciations prior to recording - bit sloppy and careless.

Nee-am??

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Narrator’s inability to pronounce Niamh is glaring and astounding. How did nobody in the production pick up on this?
The book itself is good, though not a patch on Kate Atkinson’s other wonderful stories. Jackson’s character development is slightly disappointing, for me,

Poor narration. Not the best Brodie novel.

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what really got me into the story was the excellent work the narrator was doing! Loved it.

excellent narration

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an excellently written book. Engaging, truthful and beautifully structured. Although I liked the reader's voice and his characterisation was good, he persistently put the emphasis on odd words. So much so, that at times, it made it difficult to follow and made it sound amateur. Strange that a director didn't pick this up. It WAS very difficult to FOLLOW the story, when verbs WERE always emphasised over nouns. Listen and you can't ignore.

intelligently written. Great story. Believable and carefully drawn characters.

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Narration should have been checked …the wrong pronunciation of the daughter’s name is disrespect, distracting and incredibly lazy. Did no one check Really surprised with Audible production and thank they should re-release and refund. I am amazed that Kate Atkinson has not requested that this is taken off the market.

As always a cleverly woven and compelling story

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…… can really spoil the experience of the story. Niamh is pronounced Neeve. Not Neeyam. The narrator gives the same personality to each character, regardless of accent or gender and I’m not sure I can even finish listening to this book. I’ve listened to the first three back to back but the change of narrator on this one is just jarring. Shame.

Shows how narration….

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I think all of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books are brilliant - and in eager anticipation of Big Sky, decided to go back and re-read the previous 4 books and got them all as audio books this time around. I deliberately bought the unabridged versions as i wanted the whole book.

I enjoyed the first 3 very much - however i am finding Nicolas Bell's reading grating to say the least. He reads very quickly sometimes, almost as though he is finding the story boring and is reading it as quickly as he can. Then it ends up sounding like a list. He also misprounces Jackson's sister name - making it sound wierd and strangulated. It is pronounced NEVE - spelt NIAMH and surely a Producer or Editor should be listening to ammend any mistakes before they are published.

I have tried to slow down the narration - but that makes it sound even worse.

I am so glad that Big Sky is narrated by Jason Issacs - really looking forward to it.

Wonderful, gripping story telling

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It’s pronounced ‘Neeve’! Why did no one notice? Poor Niamh.

Otherwise, excellent book, excellent reading :)

Nee-yam?!

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I'm not the first one to say it - but Niamh is (a) a common name and (b) it is both sloppy and disrespectful to the writer and reader not to proof this, and to publish this with such an "it'll do" attitude. With reference to the general production quality, the narrator is in the listener's ears for over twelve hours: it is off putting to constantly hear the sounds of breathing and dry mouth. This is NOT the narrator's fault, but the producer and sound editor. The only explanation I can think of is that this book was recorded before the series had achieved its current popularity, and was produced as some kind of contractual obligation. All of the unabridged audiobooks in the series have their issues, but this really needs to be redone; preferably with Jason Isaacs or Steven Crossley (who did a perfectly decent job on books two and three).

Great book marred by poor production.

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